What You Need To Know About Infectious Disease
Prevention & Treatment
Government Policies
Keeping our nation safe from disease outbreaks depends on effective and well-coordinated programs that monitor public health. What are some of the key efforts at work in the United States?
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What do you know about infectious disease?
True or False: Not all microbes are harmful to humans.
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Correct!
Not all microbes are harmful to humans. In fact, many of them protect us, helping our bodies function properly and competing with harmful organisms in an eternal contest for habitable space in or on our bodies. Although the microorganisms that cause disease often receive more attention, most microorganisms do not cause illness.
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Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Not all microbes are harmful to humans. In fact, many of them protect us, helping our bodies function properly and competing with harmful organisms in an eternal contest for habitable space in or on our bodies. Although the microorganisms that cause disease often receive more attention, most microorganisms do not cause illness.
Infectious Disease Defined
- Globalization
The process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures are becoming integrated through a global network of trade, migration, communication, and the spread of new technology.
National Academies
Search the National Academies Press website by selecting one of these related terms.
Source Material
- Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration (2010)
- BioWatch and Public Health Surveillance: Evaluating Systems for the Early Detection of Biological Threats—Abbreviated Version, Summary (2009)
- Sustaining Global Surveillance and Response to Emerging Zoonotic Diseases (2009)
- The U.S. Commitment to Global Health: Recommendations for the Public and Private Sectors (2009)
- Global Infectious Disease Surveillance and Detection: Assessing the Challenges, Finding Solutions—Workshop Summary (2007)
- Addressing Foodborne Threats to Health: Policies, Practices, and Global Coordination—Workshop Summary (2006)
- Microbial Threats to Health: Emergence, Detection, and Response (2003)
